Global Pulse

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  • Detained Suu Kyi meets Red Cross official in Myanmar: president office

    Detained Suu Kyi meets Red Cross official in Myanmar: president office

    Nearly three and a half years after a military coup ousted Myanmar’s democratically elected government, the detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has held her first publicly confirmed meeting with an international official, according to the country’s presidency. On Monday morning, Arnaud de Baecque, the ICRC’s Resident Representative to Myanmar, held a face-to-face encounter with the 81-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate, the office confirmed.

    The junta-led administration released multiple images alongside the announcement: one captures Suu Kyi shaking hands with a figure that matches de Baecque’s description, while two other images show Suu Kyi cutting a birthday cake inscribed with the message “Happy Birthday Aunty Suu.” While AFP could not independently certify the images’ authenticity, artificial intelligence analysis found no evidence of digital manipulation, and no prior versions of the photos had been circulated online before Monday’s announcement. The AFP has reached out to the International Committee of the Red Cross for further comment on the meeting.

    The February 2021 military coup ended Suu Kyi’s five-year tenure as Myanmar’s state counsellor, after her National League for Democracy won a landslide re-election victory. The junta immediately detained Suu Kyi on a sprawling set of criminal charges that international human rights organizations universally dismiss as politically fabricated, designed to remove her from public life and dismantle her widely popular party. The post-coup uprising against military rule has devolved into an ongoing civil conflict that has killed more than 100,000 people, according to data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED).

    Earlier this year, the junta oversaw a widely boycotted and restricted general election that consolidated its control over the civilian government. In April, former junta chief Min Aung Hlaing was sworn in as the country’s new civilian president, and shortly after the inauguration, he announced he would commute the remainder of Suu Kyi’s combined 27-year prison sentence and transfer her from prison to private house detention in the capital Naypyidaw. To date, junta authorities have refused to disclose the exact location of her detention or confirm how much of her sentence remains in effect.

    For months, Suu Kyi’s family and the international community have called for independent verification that she remains alive. Her son, British national Kim Aris, has repeatedly pushed for independent access to confirm her welfare following the transfer to house arrest. This meeting marks the first time a third-party international representative has been allowed to see Suu Kyi publicly since the coup.

    A senior veteran politician from Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, called the confirmation of her survival a small relief. “We are happy to see her photo like this if it’s really her meeting with the ICRC. We can know now that she’s alive,” the politician said, adding: “However, Aunty should be released immediately as she’s being detained unlawfully.”

    Since the 2021 coup, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has suspended Myanmar’s junta leadership from participation in the bloc’s high-level summits, over the military’s failure to implement a peace and reconciliation roadmap agreed with the bloc. In recent months, however, neighboring Thailand has led a diplomatic push to readmit Myanmar back into ASEAN’s regional framework, both through bilateral engagement and bloc-level initiatives.

    Min Aung Hlaing has already undertaken official visits to China, India, and ASEAN member Laos since taking office as president, and he is scheduled to make a high-profile official trip to Thailand later this week. Independent Myanmar analysts and regional policy researchers say the timing of the ICRC meeting, coming just days before the Thailand trip, is no coincidence.

    “It’s the old military game plan to use Suu Kyi as a bargaining chip,” independent Myanmar analyst David Mathieson told AFP. He noted that multiple ASEAN member states have long demanded public proof of Suu Kyi’s status as a condition for normalizing diplomatic relations with the junta. “As a gesture to the international community, it’s the wildcard Min Aung Hlaing was holding close to his chest,” Mathieson added.

    Morgan Michaels, a researcher focused on Myanmar at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said the junta stands to gain significant diplomatic ground by allowing international access to Suu Kyi. “Releasing her in particular would go a long way to facilitating Myanmar’s re-invitation at the political level,” Michaels said. Even with this latest gesture, Suu Kyi’s continued detention remains a major sticking point for the international community: ASEAN has repeatedly called for its own special envoy to be granted access to meet Suu Kyi, a request the junta has rejected repeatedly to date.

  • Australian stocks recover after US President Donald Trump cancels planned attack on Iran

    Australian stocks recover after US President Donald Trump cancels planned attack on Iran

    Australia’s benchmark share index bounced back from steep early losses to close in positive territory on Monday, after a sudden policy shift from former U.S. President Donald Trump that pulled back from planned military strikes against Iran and calmed global market jitters over energy inflation.

    Heading into the trading day, futures markets had priced in a roughly 1% opening drop for the Australian Securities Exchange, as investors braced for escalating Middle East tensions that threatened to push global oil prices sharply higher. But the market trajectory shifted dramatically mid-morning after Trump announced he had called off what he described as a major planned military strike on Iran, a strike that would have been the largest offensive against the country since World War II. The announcement eased widespread fears that conflict would disrupt global oil supplies and trigger a new spike in global inflation.

    By the closing bell, the benchmark ASX 200 had gained 42.50 points, or 0.47%, to settle at 9019.30. The broader All Ordinaries index followed suit, adding 41.40 points, or 0.45%, to reach 9178.40. The Australian dollar edged lower during Monday’s session but held above the key psychological threshold of 70 U.S. cents, closing at 70.34 U.S. cents.

    Nine out of the ASX’s 11 industry sectors finished the day in positive territory, led by strong gains in utilities, healthcare, and consumer discretionary stocks. The utilities sector posted the strongest performance of any group: Origin Energy climbed 2.88% to $11.07, AGL Energy rose 1.93% to $8.44, and Genesis Energy surged 5.85% to $2.17. Consumer discretionary stocks also posted solid gains, with retail conglomerate Wesfarmers rising 1.45% to $90.66, electronics retailer JB Hi-Fi adding 0.60 points to close at $82.42, and automotive group Eagers Automotive gaining 1.40% to $23.85.

    The only notable drag on overall market gains came from the energy sector, where falling oil prices pushed most major stocks lower. Brent crude futures fell 5.3% to settle at $83.26 a barrel, after dipping as low as $81.55 earlier in the session as tensions de-escalated. Top Australian energy producers reflected the drop: Woodside Energy shares fell 1.37% to $32.50, and Santos slumped 1.91% to $7.89. Refiner and retailer Ampol bucked the trend, posting a marginal 0.08% gain to close at $39.93.

    Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, Trump explained that he had opted to pause planned strikes to open the door for diplomatic negotiations, set to launch on Monday afternoon. “Obviously, they don’t want to be attacked. They knew the extent of the attack because they saw it forming,” he said. “Now what we’re doing is we’re talking to them in the form of a negotiation. It begins tomorrow afternoon.”

    Tony Sycamore, senior market analyst for IG, noted that the sudden de-escalation removed a key layer of risk that had spooked investors in prior sessions. He added that Trump also signaled a potential deal governing shipping through the Strait of Hormuz — a critical global oil chokepoint — is within reach, with talks on Iran’s nuclear program to follow after initial negotiations. Still, Sycamore struck a cautious note on the long-term outlook for tensions: “Whether this turns into a rinse and repeat of last week — with hopes of a deal collapsing as Iran digs in its heels and continues to leverage its control over the Strait, potentially through an attack on a US base or a tanker transiting the waterway remains to be seen.”

    In individual company news, mining giant Fortescue continued a downward trend from the previous week, sliding another 3.84% to close at $17.80 — a 12-month low for the stock. The drop was driven by falling iron ore prices, with Singapore iron ore futures falling 1.90% to $94.25 a tonne. Elsewhere, Steadfast Group jumped 2.94% to $5.26 after the company issued an update to the market confirming that a KKR-led consortium reaffirmed its planned takeover offer for the business at $6 per share.

  • Survivors recall blasts before deadly Indonesian ferry fire

    Survivors recall blasts before deadly Indonesian ferry fire

    On Sunday morning, a passenger ferry traveling from Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest urban center, to Makassar on Sulawesi Island caught fire, resulting in at least five confirmed deaths and a still-unclear number of missing passengers, with survivors recalling multiple loud explosions moments before the blaze broke out. More than a day after the disaster, search and rescue teams continue to comb the waters around the incident site, which lies approximately six hours by sea from the port of Surabaya.

    Inconsistent official counts have added confusion to the emergency response effort. According to the head of Indonesia’s national search and rescue agency, Nanang Sigit, the vessel carried 236 passengers and crew when it departed port. As of Monday, he confirmed that 229 people had been rescued alive, five bodies had been recovered, and just two people remained unaccounted for, a figure that officials are still cross-checking with the ferry’s operator. However, these numbers differ sharply from earlier reports: on Sunday, officials cited a total passenger manifest of 271 people, with 41 reported missing. East Java police official Arman Asmara Syarifuddin also gave a conflicting count Monday, stating that roughly 28 people are still missing. The root cause of the major discrepancies in official figures has not been explained to date.

    Survivors rescued and brought back to Surabaya have shared harrowing accounts of the disaster. Muhammad Abdul Karim, one of the passengers rescued after seven hours adrift at sea, told reporters that the fire broke out as many passengers were eating their morning breakfast. “Initially, the smoke entered the information room, the sleeping quarters. And then explosions happened,” he explained. The blaze started in the stern section of the ferry, sending panicked passengers rushing toward the bow, where crews distributed life jackets to everyone on board. As the flames spread rapidly toward the front of the vessel, Karim jumped into the sea alongside an elderly passenger, and looked back to see the fire engulf nearly the entire ship. “The waves were big and the ship coming to save us was quite far. Those were our fears when we were about to jump,” Karim said, adding that he did not spot any usable lifeboats on the ferry during the emergency.

    Another survivor, 36-year-old Bambang Susilo, recalled that the rising heat of the ferry’s floor convinced him he had no option but to jump more than 10 meters into the open ocean alongside another passenger. “We had no choice but to surrender” to our fate, he told reporters from Bhayangkara Hospital in Surabaya, where he waited to claim the body of a colleague who died in the incident. Bambang and five other passengers swam roughly five kilometers to reach a waiting rescue vessel. Most rescued passengers have been transported back to Surabaya, with search operations continuing around the clock through Sunday night into Monday. A second rescue vessel was deployed on Monday to expand the search for the missing.

    This latest ferry disaster highlights the persistent risk of marine accidents across Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago nation made up of more than 17,000 islands that relies heavily on maritime transport to connect its population of 270 million. Industry analysts and safety officials have long warned that lax enforcement of marine safety standards, combined with the nation’s often unpredictable tropical weather, creates frequent hazards for passenger ferries. Just one month prior to this incident, another ferry carrying more than 70 people sank near Selayar, a small tropical island south of Sulawesi. That disaster left at least four people dead, with 14 others remaining missing when search operations were called off.

  • Cyberattack hits Liechtenstein’s register of people behind companies and foundations

    Cyberattack hits Liechtenstein’s register of people behind companies and foundations

    The tiny European principality of Liechtenstein, a wealthy Alpine nation sandwiched between Switzerland and Austria with an economy deeply tied to its global financial services sector, has confirmed that a coordinated cyberattack has compromised the personal data of roughly 31,000 individuals listed in its public register of economic beneficiaries. This register, which tracks the ultimate owners of companies, foundations, and trustee arrangements held within the country, is a core regulatory tool designed to crack down on transnational money laundering and terrorist financing. According to official statements from the Liechtenstein government, the unauthorized access to the system occurred overnight between Wednesday and Thursday of last week. System administrators first detected the security breach on Thursday, prompting immediate emergency action: cybersecurity teams moved quickly to secure all exposed remaining data and took the entire affected register offline to prevent further unauthorized access. Importantly, government officials confirmed that as of the latest assessments, there is no evidence that any of the accessed data has been altered, corrupted, or deleted by the attackers. Over the weekend following the discovery of the breach, the Liechtenstein government formally established a dedicated cross-agency crisis unit to lead the full investigation into the incident, identify the perpetrators, and evaluate the full scope of potential risks stemming from the data exposure. With a total national population of just 40,000 people, the breach has impacted a share of individuals equivalent to nearly three-quarters of the country’s entire population, underscoring the scale of the cybersecurity incident for the small financial hub.

  • Aung San Suu Kyi appears healthy in first confirmed outside contact for 2.5 years

    Aung San Suu Kyi appears healthy in first confirmed outside contact for 2.5 years

    Nearly two and a half years after the Myanmar military junta cut off all confirmed external contact with detained former civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the iconic pro-democracy figure has finally held a face-to-face meeting with representatives from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), a development that has drawn global attention to the country’s ongoing political crisis.

    Pictures of the meeting, officially released by Myanmar’s military-controlled government, show the 81-year-old Suu Kyi appearing in good general health and relaxed demeanor. No further details, however, have been disclosed about the specifics of her current health status or the content of discussions between Suu Kyi and the ICRC delegation.

    The long period of isolation dates back to February 2021, when the Myanmar military seized power in a coup that ousted Suu Kyi’s democratically elected government. In the aftermath of the coup, Suu Kyi was taken into custody and later convicted on a series of charges widely condemned by the international community as politically motivated and fabricated. She was initially handed a cumulative 33-year prison sentence, but authorities later reduced the penalty and transferred her from prison to house arrest in an unacknowledged location.

    For years, Myanmar’s military leadership has given repeated verbal assurances that Suu Kyi remains alive and in stable condition, but it has refused to release any independent, verifiable evidence to back up these claims. Growing international uncertainty around her status pushed Suu Kyi’s youngest son, Kim Aris, to launch a high-profile international campaign in recent months demanding the junta provide concrete proof that his mother is still alive.

    Thursday’s confirmation of the ICRC visit marks the first time Suu Kyi has had an officially confirmed meeting with representatives from an outside organization since the 2021 coup. The Myanmar Military Information Committee also reconfirmed this week that Suu Kyi had recently been moved to full house arrest, updating previous statements about her detention status.

    The junta, which remains firmly under the control of coup leader Min Aung Hlaing despite a controversial general election held earlier in 2026, has recently stepped up efforts to break the diplomatic isolation it has faced since the coup. Senior military officials have conducted a string of official visits to neighboring Southeast Asian nations, as the junta seeks to rebuild regional ties and restore international legitimacy.

    International and regional actors have laid out three core conditions for engaging more deeply with the military government: an immediate end to aerial bombardments of civilian areas held by opposition anti-junta forces, the launch of inclusive negotiations to end the two-year civil war that has ravaged the country, and the full release of Aung San Suu Kyi and other detained political opponents. The junta has so far rejected the first two demands, but the decision to allow the ICRC visit and release photos of the meeting is being interpreted by diplomatic analysts as a potential sign the military may be willing to make concessions on the third demand to ease international pressure.

  • Trump attorney general pick says has reached deal with senators after standoff

    Trump attorney general pick says has reached deal with senators after standoff

    A weeks-long standoff that threatened to derail the confirmation of U.S. President Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general has been resolved, after acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced Sunday he had struck a deal with skeptical Senate lawmakers and formally signed an order terminating the widely contested $1.8 billion anti-weaponization compensation fund.

    Blanche’s announcement comes on the heels of the Senate Judiciary Committee delaying a procedural vote to advance his nomination last week, a move that followed mounting opposition from two key Republican senators: John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina. The pair had publicly pledged to block Blanche’s confirmation until the Trump administration fully walked back its plan for the fund, which was created to compensate individuals who claim they were targeted by politically motivated prosecutions.

    In a public post on X shared Sunday, Blanche laid out the outcome of weeks of negotiations with committee leaders and rank-and-file senators. “My team and I have met with committee members and Senators over the past several weeks and addressed any concerns or outstanding questions,” Blanche wrote. “We have enjoyed good faith discussions, and as a result issue the following order and update with regard to the May IRS settlement.”

    Attached to Blanche’s post was a signed executive order that formally invalidates the previous May 18, 2026 order that established the Anti-Weaponization Fund. “The Attorney General’s May 18, 2026 Order establishing the Anti-Weaponization Fund… is rescinded and shall have no force or effect,” the order reads. “This Order establishes, beyond any doubt, that there is no Fund.”

    The controversial fund grew out of an extraordinary legal settlement between Trump and his own administration over the unauthorized disclosure of Trump’s personal tax records several years ago. As part of the original terms, the agreement granted sweeping protection from future tax audits and government legal claims to Trump, his immediate family, and his affiliated business entities. From the moment the fund was unveiled, critics across the political spectrum raised sharp objections, arguing it lacked a clear foundation in U.S. law, included almost no provisions for public oversight, and could be exploited to provide payouts and legal protection to Trump loyalists — even including defendants convicted of crimes connected to the January 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol.

    While Blanche had previously offered verbal assurances that the fund would not move forward, Cornyn and Tillis refused to accept informal commitments. The pair insisted on a binding written order that ruled out any future revival of the fund and included specific language to narrow the scope of the broad tax protections granted to Trump and his associates in the original settlement. As of Sunday evening, neither senator had issued a public response to Blanche’s announcement.

    The Senate Judiciary Committee is now scheduled to hold its long-delayed vote on Blanche’s nomination on Tuesday. The impasse had grown so tense in recent days that Trump suggested Thursday he could temporarily pull Blanche’s nomination — the former personal lawyer to the president — and re-nominate him after Cornyn and Tillis leave their Senate seats at the end of January, when new members of Congress are sworn in.

  • Media bosses slam Labor’s tech reforms, warn they will ‘gut’ news payment scheme

    Media bosses slam Labor’s tech reforms, warn they will ‘gut’ news payment scheme

    A fierce public debate has erupted over the Albanese government’s newly unveiled revisions to Australia’s landmark media bargaining framework, with the ruling Labor party claiming the changes will force large global technology firms to pay far more for repurposing Australian news content — while leading domestic media executives warn the revisions will eviscerate the core purpose of the original scheme designed to make tech platforms compensate local journalism.

    Unveiled on Monday, the revised package amends both the Media Bargaining Incentive and the News Journalism Payment Scheme, marking the second iteration of the policy following a draft proposal released this past April. The most eye-catching adjustment on paper is an increase to the financial penalty for tech and social media giants that refuse to strike voluntary compensation deals with Australian news outlets, raising the levy rate from 2.25% to 2.5%. But the reform narrows the revenue base the levy applies to: instead of being calculated against a company’s total Australian revenue, the penalty will only be charged on digital advertising revenue that can be specifically linked to Australia. Industry analysts broadly agree this base narrowing will result in lower overall penalty amounts for non-compliant firms, undermining the incentive to negotiate.

    Michael Miller, executive chairman of News Corp Australia, one of the country’s largest media conglomerates, issued a scathing rebuke of the changes, arguing they “gut the incentive” for tech platforms to negotiate fair compensation agreements at a moment when existing rules need to be strengthened, not weakened. “On an already uneven playing field, getting this wrong won’t just hurt Australian media. It will erode the quality and independence of news every Australian relies on,” Miller said, adding that major tech firms must not be allowed to continue avoiding their regulatory obligations, and that Australia needs full revenue transparency backed by strict, uncompromising penalties for platforms that break local media laws.

    Matt Stanton, chief executive of Nine Entertainment, another leading domestic media group, echoed the criticism, noting that foreign-owned tech giants already exercise outsized influence over how Australian audiences access news content from outlets like Nine. “Independent journalism plays a fundamental role in democracy, holding governments, institutions and businesses to account. In this rapidly changing world this is more important than ever,” Stanton said, adding that the last-minute substantive changes to the scheme demand far closer parliamentary scrutiny to ensure the policy retains its core goal: forcing platforms to negotiate fairly for the journalism they profit from.

    Sally Eagle, chief executive of Are Media, added her voice to the concerns, stressing that the levy must deliver on its founding purpose of pushing major digital platforms to the negotiation table. She called on the Australian parliament, which is set to vote on the final legislation in the coming months, to ensure the final draft is transparent and free of loopholes that would allow platforms to dodge their responsibility to strike long-term sustainable deals with local media.

    Tim Duggan, chair of the Digital Publishers Alliance, described the revised reforms as “a pretty mixed bag”, noting that the biggest problem is that the total potential penalty pool has been reduced too dramatically to drive compliance. “I struggle to see how it will incentivise the outcome desired by the government once the platforms start using accounting trickery to minimise their obligations,” Duggan said.

    The revised framework comes after major Australian media outlets including the ABC, Australian Community Media, Network 10, and The Guardian previously praised the April draft as a critical step forward for protecting local journalism. In a joint statement earlier this year that included Miller and Stanton, the groups urged all Australian parliamentarians to back measures that safeguard Australian journalism and its vital democratic role for all citizens.

    Speaking to reporters on Monday, Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino defended the reforms, arguing that tech platforms will still end up paying “substantially more” if they refuse to negotiate commercial deals with local media firms. “Under the previous arrangements that we inherited under the News Media Bargaining Code, big tech platforms could walk away without any consequences,” Mulino said. “Now, they will end up paying substantially more than if they enter into commercial agreements. There is a substantial financial incentive on big tech platforms to enter into agreements.”

    The opposition Liberal-National Coalition has also blasted the reforms, with communications spokesperson Sarah Henderson — a former journalist — arguing Labor has failed to deliver on the original News Media Bargaining Code first introduced by the former Coalition government, which was fiercely opposed by major tech firms including Meta, the parent company of Facebook that shut down its Facebook News tab in Australia in 2021. “Labor’s dithering and delay on a promised replacement scheme has left tech giants unaccountable for their use of Australian copyrighted news content, while newsrooms and regional newspapers face uncertainty about their future,” Henderson said, adding that “it’s clear Labor is more concerned about giving the tech giants a free kick than distributing monies fairly to Australian news organisations. Not only will Labor’s scheme mean less money for Australian journalism, the government is now doing even less to encourage commercial deals with big tech which is extremely disappointing.”

    The Coalition did welcome minor adjustments to the scheme, including the elimination of a carve-out for professional networking platforms, which means services like LinkedIn will now be required to comply with the payment rules. But Shadow Assistant Treasurer Kevin Hogan warned the scheme will only work if digital platforms report their Australian revenue accurately. Additional changes introduced by Labor include raising the minimum number of deals a tech platform must strike with local media outlets to avoid penalties from four to six, grandfathering existing valid deals from previous bargaining rounds, and mandating a full independent review of the scheme after three years of implementation. Major tech companies that already pushed back against Labor’s initial draft proposal earlier this year are widely expected to oppose the revised measures as well.

  • Number of people missing unknown after Indonesian ferry fire that killed 5, rescuers say

    Number of people missing unknown after Indonesian ferry fire that killed 5, rescuers say

    On Sunday, a devastating fire broke out aboard an Indonesian inter-island ferry traveling off the coast of East Java, leaving at least five people dead and triggering an urgent search operation for unaccounted passengers that stretched into Monday, national rescue officials confirmed.

    The blaze erupted on the Mutiara Sentosa 2, a 160-meter passenger and cargo ferry operating on the high-traffic route between Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city located on East Java, and Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi. According to initial details from the vessel’s official manifest, the ferry was slated to carry 232 passengers and 39 crew members when the fire broke out between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. in waters administered by Indonesia’s Sumenep regency, roughly 35 kilometers north of Buruan Sapudi Island. The ferry was also transporting 180 vehicles, mostly commercial trucks, along with a heavy construction excavator.

    By Monday morning, search and rescue teams had pulled 229 survivors from the burning vessel and recovered five bodies of deceased victims. However, officials confirmed that the actual number of people on board far exceeded the count listed on the official ship manifest, leaving the exact number of missing passengers unclear. Rescue teams are currently cross-referencing accounts from survivors and statements from families of potential missing people to pin down an accurate count of unaccounted individuals.

    Ahmad Abdul Karim, one of the passengers who escaped the fire, shared his firsthand account of the disaster. He told reporters the fire appeared to originate from a truck parked on the ferry’s lower vehicle deck, before strong winds fanned the flames across the ship at an alarming speed. Karim said that within 30 minutes of the fire being spotted, all passengers and crew were ordered to evacuate to the ferry’s bow to avoid the spreading blaze.

    Discrepancies between official passenger manifests and actual on-board counts are a widespread issue in Indonesia’s domestic ferry industry, according to Nanang Sigit, head of the Surabaya Search and Rescue Office. Sigit explained that these gaps are most often caused by unrecorded overcrowding, a common practice that creates major complications for search and rescue teams working to identify missing people after a disaster.

    Multiple assets have been deployed to the incident site to support the search effort. A dedicated rescue vessel was dispatched from Surabaya, with additional support from Indonesian Navy ships and several commercial vessels that were passing through the area near the time of the fire. The investigation into the root cause of the blaze is still ongoing, and no official conclusions have been released as of Monday.

    Built in Japan in 1992, the Mutiara Sentosa 2 operated in Japanese waters before being sold to an Indonesian ferry operator in 2015. The vessel is rated to carry up to 689 passengers and 49 crew members, along with a maximum cargo of 181 vehicles. The 40-hour Surabaya-Makassar route is a critical transport link for domestic travelers and cargo moving between Java and Sulawesi, two of Indonesia’s most populous major islands.

    As the world’s largest archipelagic nation, Indonesia is made up of more than 17,000 separate islands, making ferries the primary mode of inter-island transport for millions of residents. However, ferry disasters are a regular occurrence across the country, with transportation safety experts and officials repeatedly citing weak regulatory enforcement of safety standards as a leading contributing factor to these incidents.

    This report was compiled with contributions from Associated Press journalists Niniek Karmini and Edna Tarigan based in Jakarta, Indonesia.

  • Water-dropping aircraft take off to tackle major Greek wildfire, after 2 killed in crash

    Water-dropping aircraft take off to tackle major Greek wildfire, after 2 killed in crash

    As Europe confronts one of its most severe summer wildfire emergencies in recent memory, multiple countries are facing expanding blazes, tragic loss of life, and stretched emergency response capacity, with high temperatures and shifting wind patterns keeping authorities on high alert.

    On the Greek front, the crisis took a devastating turn Sunday when two firefighting helicopters collided midair while battling a large wildfire burning west of Athens, the nation’s capital. The crash killed two crew members: one Greek national and one Danish firefighter who had been deployed to support Greece’s wildfire response. Two other crew members on the second helicopter — a Greek and a British national — survived with minor injuries and were transported to a local hospital for treatment. The collision occurred near the coastal community of Psatha, where the fire had been raging since Friday morning.

    By first light Monday, authorities dispatched 10 additional air assets — five water-dropping planes and five helicopters — to support nearly 500 ground firefighters working to contain the blaze. The collision highlighted the extreme risks facing first responders on the most volatile front of Europe’s wildfire crisis, even as new evacuation orders were issued for three additional communities near Athens in the early hours of Monday as flames pushed deeper into the Attica region. More than 1,000 people have been displaced by the fire so far, including over 250 residents and visitors who were rescued by boat from local beaches as flames reached the coastline.

    Greek firefighting authorities announced Sunday that the blaze has been traced to an electrical fault: sparks from a faulty power line connecting a private wind generator facility to the national grid triggered the fire. Two people have already been arrested in connection with the incident, including an electrical engineer who oversaw the project’s design and a contractor who worked on the transmission line. Both face felony arson charges, and an arrest warrant has also been issued for the owner of the wind generator company.

    For Greece, large summer wildfires are a recurring annual disaster. Hot, dry conditions combined with frequent strong winds create ideal conditions for small sparks to escalate into major infernos. Officials note that more than 90% of the hundreds of wildfires the country fights each year stem from human negligence, as common risk mitigation measures such as bans on open-air barbecues, welding, and the use of power saws in dry forest areas are regularly ignored. In a separate incident Sunday, authorities on the Greek island of Kefalonia arrested a man on suspicion of deliberately starting a wildfire that forced the evacuation of multiple nearby villages.

    A shift in conditions on Monday brought a small measure of hope: the gale-force winds that had fanned the flames and grounded water-dropping aircraft through the weekend began to die down, allowing crews to resume aerial attacks on the blaze and create new firebreaks to slow its advance. But officials warn that the entire Attica region remains at extreme wildfire risk, with forecasts calling for a new round of rising temperatures later this week.

    The wildfire crisis is not limited to Greece. Across Western Europe, France is grappling with the largest wildfire in its modern history, which has already forced what officials describe as the largest peacetime civilian evacuation in the country’s history. Some 224,000 people have been displaced by the Gironde megablaze in southwestern France, which has already burned through 420 square kilometers of land — an area roughly four times the size of the city of Paris. While firefighters managed to contain the blaze within its existing perimeter by Sunday night, dozens of hotspots continue to burn inside the fire zone, and thousands of displaced residents remain unable to return to their homes. Nearly 3,000 French firefighters are deployed to battle this blaze and a second major wildfire burning in the Provence region.

    When combined with large-scale blazes in Spain, wildfires across Western and Southern Europe have displaced roughly 350,000 people from their homes and summer vacation sites, emptying communities during the peak tourism season and stretching emergency response services across multiple simultaneous disasters.

  • ‘Your legacy will live forever’: Nepal mourns climber Nirmal Purja

    ‘Your legacy will live forever’: Nepal mourns climber Nirmal Purja

    The global mountaineering sphere and the nation of Nepal are reeling from an unthinkable tragedy: an unexpected avalanche on Pakistan’s 8,047-meter Broad Peak has claimed the lives of all 10 members of an expedition, six of whom were Nepali climbers, including trailblazing British-Nepali mountaineer Nirmal “Nims” Purja. The entire team went missing last Thursday after being caught in the deadly snow slide, and rescue efforts have now confirmed no survivors.

    Purja, who catapulted to global fame after his record-breaking feat of summiting all 14 of the world’s tallest peaks in just over six months, was a beloved figure in Nepal, where he spent decades elevating the profile of unsung Nepali climbing guides. The 40-something climber leaves behind a wife and three-year-old daughter in Hampshire, southern England. Before turning to full-time high-altitude mountaineering, Purja served 16 years in the British military, 10 of those in the special forces, and was awarded an MBE by the late Queen Elizabeth II in 2018 for his mountaineering achievements. He made history as the first Gurkha to summit Everest while still serving in the British military, and his unprecedented 14-peak expedition was documented in the 2021 Netflix documentary that introduced him to audiences worldwide. In 2024, he faced unproven sexual misconduct allegations from two women, which he vehemently denied through his legal representation.

    Tributes have poured in from across the globe, starting with Nepal’s highest office. Prime Minister Balendra Shah honored Purja’s memory, saying, “His history of courage, dedication and contribution will always remain inspiring.” For Purja’s older brother Kamal, the loss is unfathomable. “I feel as though I have lost my whole world,” he wrote in an emotional Facebook post. “My brother was not only my younger brother – he was my heart. Although our hearts are broken, we are incredibly proud of you. Your legacy will live forever.”

    At Purja’s alma mater, Small Heaven School in Nepal’s Chitwan district near Kathmandu, students and staff gathered to hold a candlelight vigil, mourning the loss of their most famous graduate. “Purja’s bravery has set a great example for our school,” said student Sarbagya Paudel. “Not only has he made our school proud, but he has also brought pride to Nepal.” Longtime staff who knew Purja as a child recalled his unshakable drive even at a young age. “As a young boy Purja was fearless and committed to achieving something,” said former hostel supervisor Shailendra Baral in an interview with AFP. “He was honest and an obedient student, which made us happy. We found courage in him even when he was a child.” Childhood friend Bahadur Panta, who joined dozens of mourners at the school vigil, shared that he and countless others spent days praying for a miracle after news of the avalanche broke. “It was not only me and my friends. I think people all over the world who knew him prayed for him. But it was his fate, no one could avoid it,” Panta said.

    While Purja is the most internationally recognizable name lost in the tragedy, the expedition included several other legendary figures from Nepal’s tight-knit climbing community. Among them was Pur Bahadur Gurung, widely known as Yukta, who had summited Everest an extraordinary 10 times. In 2024, he was part of the team that discovered a century-old climbing shoe on Everest, believed to have belonged to Andrew Irvine, the British climber who disappeared alongside George Mallory during their 1924 expedition. Fellow mountaineer Uttam Lapraki paid tribute to Gurung on social media, writing, “Standing with you on the summit of Mount Everest is a memory I will cherish forever. The Himalayas have lost one of their finest sons, but your courage, kindness, and legacy will continue to inspire generations of climbers.”

    Another fallen climber, Kili Pemba Sherpa, made history as part of the first all-Nepali winter expedition to summit K2, the world’s second-highest peak, in 2021 – an expedition that also included Purja. Imagine Nepal, the expedition company where Sherpa worked as a guide, shared a moving tribute on Instagram: “He stood with us from the very beginning, from the days we first started climbing together. He was humble in every way and never tired of helping climbers when they needed him. He was a foundation of our team and a part of every summit we have ever celebrated.”

    The remaining four climbers killed in the avalanche hailed from the United States, China, Oman, and Pakistan. Broad Peak, first successfully summited by an Austrian expedition in 1957, has long been regarded as one of the most challenging and dangerous high-altitude peaks in the world, with dozens of climbers having lost their lives on its slopes since the first ascent. Social media platforms have been flooded with tributes to all 10 climbers, with many noting Nepal is in national mourning for the six fallen local mountaineers. “We have lost a legend and many great climbers,” one comment read. “Their legacy will live on.”